


Absence Makes the Heart Grow Bitter.

by InWater



Category: Critical Role
Genre: Drabble, F/M, Unedited unbetad, post-orthax
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-04
Updated: 2019-05-04
Packaged: 2020-02-21 14:04:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18703804
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InWater/pseuds/InWater





	Absence Makes the Heart Grow Bitter.

In a flash, a single sickening second drawn out into what feels like hours, days, weeks— it’s gone. The cold pain in his chest, the strange feeling of emptiness just behind his sternum. Gone. Like it was never there at all. He was unaware of how much it hurt until right this very moment, looking at the panicked faces of his friends, his family. He sighs. 

Four years, maybe even five but who’s counting, is a long time to get used to the constant gnawing at the back of his mind, the weight on his shoulders as if the demon itself had long since perched there. It’s the dead of night when Percival drags himself to Vex’ahlia’s bedroom, a quiet tapping of his fingernails against the wooden door the only signal of his arrival before he lets himself in. Vex, ever shrewd, always alert, is already reaching to wake the softly snoring mass on the floor that is Trinket, only to drop her hand at the sight of shadowed eyes beneath a shock of silver hair. 

“Oh, _Percival_ , darling.”

All it takes is gentle urging, a little coaxing, and Percy shuffles from the doorway to sit at the edge of the bed. He stumbles over his words, muffled from where his face is hidden in his hands.  Empty. _A_ _lone_.  The unspoken insecurity hangs heavily in the air between them. Vex shifts, just enough to be able to wrap her arms around Percy’s middle. He’s pulled awkwardly across her lap and against her chest, frame too large, limbs a little too gangly to fit comfortably. It’s not at all the way it happens in books and bard’s tales, where lovers fit together seamlessly in bed and feel the weight of all of life’s burdens lift away. They are not two halves of a whole, not perfect puzzle pieces. They’re all sharp and jagged edges, rough and broken in some places, soft and vulnerable in others. But she hopes, desperately, that it’s enough when she holds a hand to the back of Percy’s neck, tucking his head beneath her chin and gazing out into the low light of the small room. Percy’s shoulder jabs into the soft flesh of Vex’s chest and she says nothing. Her knee digs painfully into his side and he returns the silence. 

She presses her lips to his hair, barely even a kiss, but he leans into her anyway. Percy tenses minutely when she finally speaks again, her voice cracking with exhaustion. 

“I was so afraid for you.” 


End file.
